LANCASHIRE RIMMERS
Unlike other surnames of an occupational or locative nature, the origin of the surname 'Rimmer' is more difficult to trace. However, in one way the task has been made easier by the fact that it seems, to be originally established and thriving in that part of tile County of Lancashire, around the three towns of Southport, Formby, and Ormskirk. In the centre of these three towns there once lay a very large lake called Martin Mere. In ancient times, it would have been among the largest lakes in England, being eighteen miles in circumference. Martin Mere was a deep depression left in the ground from the movement of ice that once covered a great part of the British Isles during the Ice Age. Throughout history, people have populated the banks of this great lake, fished from its waters and farmed its rich silt soil.
Speed's map of Lancashire (1610) still shows it as a vast sheet of water between Southport and Ormskirk which must have been much reduced in size by that time. It has been suggested that the folk who lived for centuries along its shores came to be referred to as Rimmers, living by tile rim or banks of the Mere. This may sound a little farfetched on the face of it, but even today well over 40% of the population of that area bear the surname Rimmer, and farmers of that name can be counted in their hundreds. Tile people who owned land adjoining the lake were quick to spot that if the lake could be drained away permanently, valuable agricultural land for tillage could be theirs; as a result, the Mere has reduced year by year until only a large pond remains to this day. In the 18th and 19th centuries, the incidence of tile Rimmer - Rymer name was so great in that area that nicknames had to be employed to distinguish one from another.
According to the author of "Holiday Lancashire" there is an interesting Arthurian legend attached to this lake. "Vivian mistress of Merlin the fabulous wizard of King Arthur's Court, brought a baby from the King of Benoit in Brittany, and that infant was kept in a strange place beneath the waters of this very lake. Later, that same child became the noted Sir Lancelot de Lac, and after a terrific fight with Tarquin, the Saxon chief who lived on the Roman city of Mancunium, now Manchester, became head of the surrounding district, which became known as Lancelotshire. Some go further, and say that Lancashire is a corruption of the older name."
A single origin of the Rimmer name can never be known for certain, but many theories have been put forward as to how it came into being, the previous paragraph being one of them.
It has been stated that the surname was found to be descended from the Saxon race who settled in England about the year 400AD.
It emerged as a notable English family name in the county of Lancashire where the Rimmer family held considerable estates in Warrington on the river Mersey and seems to have grown from a single family from south east Lancashire who migrated north to that area. John Rymer married into the distinguished family of Wright of Mottram, St. Andrews in the county of Chester. By the 16th century the family name had spread south to Wiltshire and north to Kirkcaldie in Scotland where the spelling of the name became Rymour.
© 2008 Ted Rimmer (Society Member)